Supreme Court Justice Byron White announced plans Friday to retire after 31 years on the bench, giving President Clinton his first opportunity to make an appointment to the nation's highest court.
White, in a statement released by the court's public information office, said he would step down at the end of the current term, in June or July."After 31 years, Marion (Mrs. White) and I think someone else should be permitted to have a like experience," White said.
White said he was informing the president of his retirement plans in a letter to be delivered to the White House Friday.
During the presidential campaign, Clinton consistently said he would appoint justices who shared his support of abortion rights. He shied away from offering names but did say during one MTV interview that he thought New York Gov. Mario Cuomo would make a superb Supreme Court justice.
White, 75, is a centrist conservative who most often sides with the court's more politically conservative members on such divisive issues as abortion and church-state relations.
He would let states outlaw most abortions. He opposes broad use of affirmative action to remedy past bias in employment, and he favors greater government accommodation of religion in ways some consider a violation of church-state separation.
White said in his statement that he and his wife plan to remain in Washington and that he will move his office down Capitol Hill to the new Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building.
"I also expect that from time to time I will sit as an appellate judge on the courts of appeals," White said.